2025 Documentary
Congratulations –
CIVL - Opioid Documentary (Mike McCulloch)
Mike McCulloch produced a documentary focused on the opioid crisis, through the lens of those directly affected by the crisis, including those currently using drugs and those in some form of recovery, as well as the people that provide care for drug users. The piece was featured on the nationally syndicated 30-minute radio program and podcast Viewpoints produced by the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC), and first aired on October 18, 2024. Mike gathered interviews with a half dozen people, including Dr. Perry Kendall, the former Provincial Health Officer of British Columbia who declared the public health emergency relating
to drug overdoses due to toxic street drugs; frontline outreach worker Ernestine O’Rourke, and drug checker Will McLellan of Mountainside Harm Reduction Society. Mike also interviewed peer support workers like Zeph, and Roy Berry who each have experience with helping folks navigate social services and saving lives, including via overdose reversal medicines; opioid users like Aaron in Mission, who explains how he came to be dependent on opioids, admits he has overdosed a dozens of times, and vividly describes drug withdrawal symptoms. Mike also spoke with Jeremy Liebrecht and Rose Foster who each reflected on their friend Zack, who died of a drug overdose. Owen in Mission says, “everyone I’ve ever loved is dead from opiates,” and in the full-piece also speaks about how taking methadone to halt the symptoms of withdrawal ensures he no longer feels like he needs to steal in order to get his fix. Roy Berry details what he looks for when monitoring a drug user before performing an overdose reversal. He provides insight into the warning signs he looks before intervening on behalf of a suspected overdose victim. Throughout the piece Dr. Kendall provides the scientific backbone necessary to better understand the overdose crisis and the experiences highlighted by the people affected by it. The full piece highlights that Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by the overdose crisis, which O’Rourke connects to Canada’s history of imposing the Residential Schools system upon Indigenous peoples. Some interview subjects in this piece were granted partial anonymity, and identified by their first name only, due to the stigma associated with drug use.
Mike was employed by CIVL between April and September, 2024 thanks to Local Journalism Initiative funding distributed by the CRFC.
Background
One of our volunteer announcers recommended that we examine the unique homeless issue in hopes of creating greater awareness within the community and government, and the charitable organizations that could help make a difference.
Our smaller community doesn’t have a system to easily help the homeless, unlike the larger cities’ resources and shelters. Many of our unhomed are ‘hidden in the shadows’ and while they aren’t necessarily living on the street, they may instead be couch-surfing, in tents or vehicles. Many homeless people have left the area to seek greater support in larger centres.
Tackling the Problem
We produced an eight-week documentary series (eight 30-minute episodes), narrated by the acclaimed, former CBC journalist, Wendy Mesley. Three of our volunteer broadcasters conducted 60+ interviews with the homeless and those trying to help them. Throughout the process, we wanted to give the unhomed a voice ... to respectfully tell their stories about how and why they ended up in this terrible situation. They were courageous in sharing their stories, and the process was emotionally taxing for the interviewees and our veteran interviewers.
Since airing and through our research, some announced infrastructure improvements suggest the documentary had an impact, and emotionally engaged our listeners as well.
Editorial Coverage
The series struck a nerve, highlighted by media interest in the critical issue of homelessness in our rural community:
- The Belleville Intelligencer: “The “Voices from the Shadows” stories are uplifting, surprising, and gut-wrenchingly hard to imagine for those of us who have never experienced such challenges.”
- The Picton Gazette: “The object was to build understanding and empathy but by no means are we pretending to be experts on homelessness,” said Craig Mills, GM, 99.3 County FM.
- Kingston This Week: “A powerful video was produced to introduce you to the series”. You can watch the video here https://youtu.be/IUlHBw6u8MI.”
Research
We conducted a benchmark (pre-airing) survey, followed by a post-airing study to help determine the impact of the documentary series:
- Respondents’ opinion that homelessness is a major issue saw an increase of 22% in the second survey.
- Lack of affordable housing was citied in both surveys as a big issue, followed by mental health issues.
- Survey 1: 67% stated that the waiting list for affordable housing is more than 5 years, jumping to 73% in survey 2.
- Survey 1: 8% reported they have experienced homelessness, with a measurable increase of 17% (survey 2).
Infrastructure Improvements
Local council and municipal staff have since implemented warming centres and are coordinating with food banks and food distribution.
Through provincial government funding, transitional housing is being established such as the conversion of the former Maples Retirement Home (Picton) to transitional housing.
Check out the award-winning submission: